A few weeks ago, news reports surfaced regarding a lawsuit against Grammy-winning crooner John Legend for allegedly stealing a song.
In the copyright-infringement lawsuit, New Jersey singer-songwriter Anthony Stokes claims that he gave Legend his demo tape in 2004, although never hearing back from him.
Two years after, Stokes realized that his song “Where Are You Now?” was ripped off in Legend’s song “Maxine’s Interlude” off of the ‘Once Again’ album. Stokes is suing for unspecified damages and is attempting to prevent the sale of the track.
Once news broke out, Legend took to his Twitter to address the situation right away to his fans. He reassured his fans to not “believe it” and that he’s “never heard of this guy.”
“I never have and never will steal another writer’s song. Never heard this dude’s song til yesterday. The case has no merit,” Legend tweets. “I guess he thinks he can squeeze a little money & fame from this. We’ll go to court and we’ll win.”
John Legend also addressed the situation again earlier this week while at the launch of the GIVE Education program.
“This gentleman made an accusation that’s not true and we know it’s not true,” Legend tells E! News. “I never heard of his song until he sued me. I would never steal anyone’s song. I’ve never, ever done that before. Never even been accused of it before, and we will fight it in court and we will prevail. I’m not worried about it. I know the truth is on my side.”
Indeed the truth will prevail. Let’s just hope this doesn’t get too messy.
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